Birgitta Wolff

Entrepreneurial intent: A twelve‐country evaluation of Ajzen's model of planned behavior

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the ability of Ajzens Theory of Planned Behavior to predict entrepreneurial intent in 12 countries representing all ten of the global regional clusters as identified in the GLOBE project. Design/methodology/approach – Ajzens model was operationalized to address entrepreneurial intent and a questionnaire was developed consisting of previously used scales, as well as a new measure of entrepreneurial autonomy. A total of 1,748 usable questionnaires were collected from university business students in 12 countries. Findings – The results suggest that Ajzens model of planned behavior, as operationalized in this study, does successfully predict entrepreneurial intent in each of the study countries, although as foreseen by Ajzen, the significant contributing model elements differ by country as does the percent of the variance explained by the model, although one model element, social norms, was a significant predictor of entrepreneurial intent in each country. Originality/value – This is the first paper to provide insight to the role of cognition in the entrepreneurial process by examining a model of planned behavior in countries representing all global regional culture clusters. The paper also provides guidance for future entrepreneurial research and individual development of entrepreneurs.

Incentive Preferences of Employees in Germany and the USA: An Empirical Investigation **

This study investigates performance reward preferences of employees in Germany and the USA. The investigation uses the following three constructs: The Institutional Framework and its formal and informal implications for incentive compensation, Diminishing Marginal Utility of individuals related to performance rewards, and Incentive Schemes as motivational devices in organizations. Our empirical investigation is based upon survey data collected from employees of a MNC in Germany and the USA using an enriched form of Hofstede?s cross-cultural questionnaire. Our results show that employees from these countries have different preferences on incentives and further that incentive plans designed for one country might have non-motivating consequences in the other. We also find that the logic of diminishing marginal utility applies to certain rewards. Referencing these results, we suggest a method for organizations to develop effective and efficient incentive systems.

Confiança dentro das organizações da Nova Economia: uma análise empírica sobre as conseqüências da incerteza institucional

This study investigates the effects of different institutional frameworks on the levels of trust within hierarchies. Following the insight into the changing of labour contracts provided by New Economy theorists and International Labour Organization [ILO] reports, this study investigates the possible differences in the levels of trust between two paradigms: the Old Economy and the New Economy. We argue that singular institutional changes which better characterize the New Economy in the form of environmental uncertainty set considerable constrains on trust development. By approaching trust as a dependent variable in a cross-industrial comparison, a questionnaire survey was carried out in Brazil accessing the levels of trust within seven Brazilian private companies. From the literature review and empirical observation of the reality of these organizations, companies were identified and classified into different groups. The study concludes that relative high institutional uncertainty considerably limits the development of trust levels within those companies operating in the New Economy.

Sustainable human resource management in China: a study of a German multinational corporation

We propose three building blocks of sustainability regarding human resource management: 1. attracting employees; 2. managing their needs; 3. encouraging the workforce to put forth effort by creating motivating incentives. These fundamental aspects of sustainability are examined in the context of a German multinational corporation that has established an operating facility in the Peoples Republic of China. Based upon a questionnaire, we find that information on: 1. the importance of work-related goals; 2. individual preferences for particular management styles; 3. performance-reward rankings may be usefully employed to organise these building blocks of sustainability considering the different institutional frameworks.

A PERFORMANCE MOTIVATOR IN ONE COUNTRY, A NON-MOTIVATOR IN ANOTHER? AN EMPIRICAL STUDY.

The management of the 21st century faces the challenge of employing workforce in different countries. These employees have different preferences related to performance rewards. Our research employs...

Trust within Brazilian new economy organizations: an empirical investigation of gender effects benchmarked on Brazilian old economy organizations

It has been suggested that one of the negative aspects of the New Economy has been growing organizational survival-risk both at the firm and the sector levels. This precarious positioning of the firm has profoundly changed the work environment resulting in the dissolution of job-definition-boundaries, thereby raising the intensity of work and finally affecting the level and nature of trust in the workplace. This is the starting point for our study. Using a questionnaire developed by Gillespie, we investigated gender profiles concerning trust in Supervisors, Peers, and Team in the New and the Old Economies for Brazilian managers. The results show that, for the New Economy, Brazilian women are more willing to give trust to Supervisors whereas Brazilian men expressed higher levels of trust when dealing with Team members. The Peer results are mixed. For the Old Economy, men uniformly express higher levels of trust compared to women over all three reference groups. Finally, for gender matched comparisons, those working in the Brazilian Old Economy firms express higher levels of trust compared to their counterparts in the New Economy independent of gender or time worked. We conclude by discussing the control implications of the above results.

Der Einfluss von Kultur und individuellen Charakteristika auf das Widerstandsverhalten von Mitarbeitern bei internationalen Akquisitionen: Eine empirische Studie

Fusionen und Akquisitionen (M&As) sind keineswegs neuere Phanomene der Unternehmenspraxis. Tatsachlich ist das erste gehaufte Auftreten von M&As gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts zu verzeichnen und fuhrte bis heute zu sechs M&AWellen (Menz 2007, S. 27 ff.). Verandert hat sich im Laufe der Zeit das Krafteverhaltnis zwischen den beteiligten Wirtschaftsraumen. So betrug der Anteil der EUund NAFTA-Staaten an allen weltweit durchgefuhrten Transaktionen im Jahr 2000 noch 83 %, wahrend es im ersten Halbjahr 2008 nur noch 60 % waren. Im Gegensatz dazu konnte bei den ASEAN-Staaten zuzuglich China, Japan und Sudkorea (ASEAN+3) im selben Zeitraum ein Anstieg um drei Prozentpunkte auf nunmehr 13 % beobachtet werden (Grimpe 2008, S. 2). Dies zeigt die zunehmende geographische Verschiebung bei M&As. Damit steigt auch das Interesse an der Betrachtung weiterer Kulturen, die im Wirtschaftsleben wichtig werden. Die Beachtung kultureller Besonderheiten von M&A-Partnern wird auch deshalb wichtiger, weil im Vergleich zu nationalen M&As internationale Fusionen und Akquisitionen an Bedeutung gewinnen (Greenberg et al. 2005, S. 55). Die Beruhrung mit fremden institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen kann eine Fusion oder Akquisition erschweren, da die gesamte Transaktion an Komplexitat gewinnt und sich daraus eine doppelte Akkulturationsproblematik, resultierend aus Unternehmens- und Landeskultur, ergeben kann (Barkema et al. 1996, S. 151).

Länderspezifische Effekte von Reputation und Information in Internetauktionen

ZusammenfassungElektronische Märkte, wie eBay und Amazon, bieten Käufern und Verkäufern eine Plattform, die den Handel von Gütern und Dienstleistungen von geographisch getrennten Transaktionspartnern ermöglicht. Gleichzeitig führen die räumliche und zeitliche Trennung der Transaktionspartner zu Informationsasymmetrien und einseitigen spezifischen Investitionen, die ein opportunistisches Verhalten der Transaktionspartner begünstigen können. Die Plattformbetreiber nutzen Reputationssysteme, um auf der Basis der Erfahrung vorheriger Transaktionspartner die asymmetrischen Informationen zu reduzieren. Bei der Internationalisierung von Onlinemarktplätzen wurden die gleichen Reputationssysteme in Ländern implementiert, deren formelle und informelle Rahmenbedingungen sich teilweise stark unterscheiden. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht auf der Basis eines umfangreichen Datensatzes den Einfluss von Reputation auf die Ergebnisse verschiedener Transaktionsphasen bei eBay Auktionen und vergleicht die Reputationseffekte zwischen Länderclustern mit unterschiedlicher Unsicherheitsvermeidung und dem damit verbundenen Grad zu dem die Individuen eines Landes strukturierte Situationen gegenüber ungewissen Situationen präferieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass in Ländern mit niedriger Unsicherheitsvermeidung die Verkäuferreputation einen stärkeren Einfluss auf die Verkaufswahrscheinlichkeit bewirkt, während in Ländern mit höherer Unsicherheitsvermeidung die Käuferreputation einen stärkeren Effekt auf die Anzahl der Bieter und den Auktionspreis hat. Hieraus ergeben sich Folgen für die länderspezifische Gestaltung von Reputationssystemen in internationalen elektronischen Märkten.AbstractElectronic markets, such as eBay and Amazon, provide sellers and buyers a platform that enables geographical separated transaction partners the trade of goods and services. The spatial and temporal separation of transaction partners causes information asymmetries and one-sided specific investments that may give rise to opportunistic behaviour. Online auction markets use reputation systems which aggregate and provide the experiences of former transaction partners to reduce information asymmetries. As a consequence of the internationalisation process of online market platforms the same reputation systems are utilized across countries that have different formal and informal institutional frameworks. The present study uses an extensive dataset to test the influence of reputation on different phases in eBay online auctions comparing reputation effects across country clusters with different levels of uncertainty avoidance and, therefore, different preferences regarding uncertain situations. The results show that in countries with lower uncertainty avoidance seller reputation has a stronger effect on the probability of sale whereas in countries with higher uncertainty avoidance seller reputation has a stronger effect on the number of bidders and the auction price. These findings have several implications for the country-specific design of reputation systems in international electronic markets.

Incentives for Lifelong Learning? German Institutions in Comparison

In Germany, as almost everywhere in the world, the working population is aging. It is predicted that in the year 2020 almost 40 percent of the working population will be more than 50 years old.1 This demographic change in the labor force calls for action: The aging workforce needs to be kept up to date with modern technologies and developments. Investments in human capital become an unavoidable expense. Lifelong learning will be inevitable. This seems to provide challenges for governments, firms, and employees, which — at least in Germany — are not yet been met.

Effects of Institutions on Human Capital Investment: A Comparison of Policies in Japan, Germany and the USA

In Germany, as almost everywhere in the industrialized world, the working population is ageing. It is predicted that in the year 2020 almost 40% of the working population will be over 50 years old (Economist 2006; Staudinger and Kuhler 2006: 10). This demographic change in the labour force calls for action. The ageing workforce needs to be kept up to date with modern technologies and developments. Investments in human capital have become an unavoidable expense, and lifelong learning will be inevitable. This seems to present governments, firms and employees with challenges which, at least in Germany, are not yet being met. According to Eurostat statistics, the participation rate of German employees in training is one of the lowest in Europe, only 42% of 25 to 64 year olds in the German workforce participated in training of any kind, whereas the participation rate, for example, in Scandinavian countries was over 70% (Eurostat 2005: 2). Moreover, in comparison with other OECD countries, the percentage of German 25 to 64 year olds in the workforce who participate in non-formal job-related education and training is low. In the United States, for instance, over 40% of the workforce participate in such training, whereas in Germany the participation rate is under 15% (OECD 2005: 50). OECD statistics show that public and private investment in education at all levels is low in Germany, although lifelong learning seems to be one of the key factors for future competitiveness under demographic change.